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Variety

FCC Moves to Roll Back Children’s Television Rules

Jul 10, 2018  •  Post A Comment

The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to cut back on the regulations that mandate how much children’s programming, and what kind, broadcasters must air to keep their licenses. Variety reports that the agency will take the first step in that process Thursday — and alarms have already been raised among parents groups.

“The rules date to the 1990s, and were put in place after decades of advocacy from parents groups who were frustrated at a landscape of cartoons and live-action shows that were overly commercialized or too full of violence and bluster,” Variety reports. “But since children increasingly watch on demand or on an array of other platforms, some FCC commissioners say that the restrictions are outdated.”

Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, the chief proponent of revising the rules, is quoted writing of the rules in a blog post earlier this year: “Not only are they unnecessary, but after over two decades of experience with the 1996 enhanced regulations, there is scant evidence to indicate that children’s programming on broadcast stations has improved.”

7 Comments

  1. All I can say is praise the Lord. Long time coming.

  2. The FCC is a joke … a trumped up piece of crap …
    Leave the rules alone …

  3. Considering PBS was and is still the standard for children’s programming this will likely not make a difference. Perhaps there will be a viable commercial venture to bring quality kids programming to commercial broadcast television. Ha, who am I kidding. I hope the FCC board members were well paid for this decision.

  4. The regulations are ridiculous. They do not allow for innovation and the “education” is pretty lame. You only have to look at the ratings for these shows to know it’s a waste of time. Then the amount of paper work & forms the station must maintain! Change is needed.

  5. The FCC is now only interested in keeping (or making) rules that will benefit the rich and corporations. Their attitude is that everyone else can just go to hell.

  6. Children in this day and time don’t even watch television for entertainment much anymore anyway….they watch Netflix, YouTube, Hulu and so on. I have a friend that works at a television station and there is a lot of paperwork involved and I believe it has to be maintained on a quarterly basis and they told me that the kids block have the lowest ratings as far as viewers. Why would viewership in ratings be so low if it was a much needed thing for stations to have to provide? I think it is something that warrants a review because it is outdated considering what is now available. Just my opinion.

  7. The Children television act of the 1990’s messed up everything. Cartoons from the 80’s and 90’s give kids a sense of doing the right thing, helping your fellow man, equality for everyone, good vs evil, hero’s to look up to and be inspired by, plus they were marketable. Y’all took that away and replaced it with grown ups cartoons. Family Guy, American Dad, Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons, Cleveland Show, South Park all push images of sex, drugs, homosexuality and degradation of different types of people but try to throw you off by making it funny so the community as a whole just disregards it. Plus no kids are going to toy stores and asking their parents to buy them a Peter Griffin action figure like in the nineties when we all wanted Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles and G.I. Joe’s and Transformers or Teddy Rupskin and My Buddy from the 80’s or Care Bears and My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake dolls. I understand the need to wanna educate the American children but at the cost of taking away a childhood of imagination and wonderment just so you can keep showing episodes of people with their dogs in training and pointing out which species is endangered, which volcano is dormant or not, which new plant is edible or deadly in the rainforest is clearly not worth it. Has America became smarter since the Children’s Television Act was imposed or is there even a poll to show the percentage of how that Act improved anything amongst the kids from that era that grew up on the now banned cartoons from the 80’s and 90’s? Seems to me that we all grew up pretty decently and we want to share the same nostalgic experience with our own kids. Let us choose what we want our kids to look at, don’t force your dictatorship and regulated toons on us just cause society or the main focus group says this is what’s good for the American children and parents. America was built on variety and you having a choice in it. I remember when you were able to wake up in the morning before school on the week days and catch at least two cartoons before heading out the door, Mask and Bionic Six. What was wrong with those cartoons, what was wrong with Bravestar and the Paw Paw Bears? Bring back those good old cartoons for the American people and for society and for the culture of what America was built upon.

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